Cecilly’s “Who Am I? Swat Game” with “fly” flash cards

Swatting flash cards with a fly swatter is a game idea used by many teachers. When Cecilly sent me her “Who Am I? Swat Game” idea, it gave me an idea to make some fly graphic flash cards to use just with that game. These cards are suitable for older students because the staves are small. In another post you can get these same cards with much larger staves. There are three pages, but if you use these with beginning students, you don’t have to print the last page. You can use just the cards your student knows. UPDATE: Select this link for larger cards to use with younger students.

When I play this game, I simply call out a note and the students swats it. For more of a challenge, I time the student to see how many they can do in a minute. It’s also fun for groups.

The following game sent to me by Cecilly requires the teacher to call out intervals as well as notes so it tests more skills. This is a copy-paste in her own words.

“Who Am I? Swat game”

Place various note flashcards face up on a table or the floor. Give
student a flyswatter and have her stand or sit in front of the cards
so they are in clear view. This is a timed game, so allow 1 min. to
see how many notes the student can correctly identify by slapping.

Ok, at “GO”, you, the teacher do the actual spot-placing out loud but
without naming the note. For example: say you’re looking at F in the
treble clef. You would say “treble G down a 2nd” quickly and wait
for the student to mentally do the spot-placing, find the note, and
then swat it and say it’s name. If correct, you say “Point!” and
immediately go on to another. If incorrect, make a Bzzz sound and
repeat the spot-placing for another note.

At first I thought I’d turn the answered note card over, but then I
thought otherwise because that same note could be spot-placed from a
different direction (Mid C up a 4th for example).

Anyway, this could be a game that’s repeated in subsequent weeks so
the student can see if she can beat her previous record.

Wendy, I can’t take credit for the fly swatting idea. That came from a teacher on the Yahoo board. Cecilly took off with the idea, I made some cards, and here it is, a group corroboration.
For the record, Cecilly uses regular flash cards, and I have been using my fly ones.